La chasse - Groenland

Hunting ? A vanishing Way of Life: From Ittoqqortoormiit, our sledge dogs take us across the bay on ice and slush to the nearby village of Uunartoq in search of the last polar bears of the season. The hunters tell us that the number of Greenlanders living exclusively off hunting has dropped from 8,000 to only 2,000 in the past ten years. Protecting bears is not easy but the government is taking some action to assure the species? survival as their natural habitat comes under threat from climate change. Traditionally Inuit hunters kill in total about 250 bears annually. Today, only Greenlanders with valid hunting permits can shoot a bear and the hunting season is closed from July 1 to September 30. In 2006, under pressure from biologists, the government introduced the first hunting quota for polar bears : 150 per season. June 2007